Jennings leads Lancashire to victory over Gloucs

Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol (day four) Gloucestershire 136 & 305: Bracey 114; Anderson 4-51 Lancashire 240 & 203-6: Jennings 78*; Williams 3-44 Lancashire (19 pts) beat Gloucestershire (3 pts) by four wickets Match scorecard Keaton Jennings led the way with an unbeaten half-century as Lancashire completed a four-wicket County Championship Division Two win over Gloucestershire shortly after lunch on the final day at the Seat Unique Stadium in Bristol. Starting the day on 75-3 in their second innings, requiring a further 127 runs for victory, the visitors finished on 203-6, Jennings contributing 78 not out. Michael Jones also made 30 and Arav Shetty 31, as their team made it two wins from their first three Championship fixtures.

Lancashire took 19 points from the game to go top of Division Two, while Gloucestershire had to settle for three to be on that number after three games and firmly rooted to the bottom of the table. Day three: Bracey leads Glos fightback against injury-hit Lancs Day two: 17 wickets fall on second day between Gloucs and Lancs Day one: Lancashire start well at rain-hit Bristol The weather gods smiled on Lancashire as play began under clear blue skies with the sun shining. It looked ideal batting conditions and there were few alarms for Jennings and Jones as they built on a stand that had reached 29 by close of play on day three.

Jennings slashed the first boundary of the day through cover off Matt Taylor and Jones soon showed positive intent too, hitting the left-arm seamer for successive boundaries in the fifth over of the day. Gabe Bell bowled a tidy spell from the Ashley Down Road End, but when he was replaced by Will Williams another Jennings boundary took the runs needed to below 100. Gloucestershire made a breakthrough in the 13th over of the day when Jones played defensively to a ball from former Lancashire seamer Williams that left him and edged to second slip where Cameron Bancroft took a comfortable waist-high catch.

At 121-4, Lancashire required a further 81 runs, with Jennings a reassuring presence in the middle. But Gloucestershire thought they had him caught behind off Henry Brookes with the score on 125, but umpire Ian Blackwell had signalled a no-ball. Soon afterwards, Jennings completed a 138-ball half-century including eight fours.